Party politics in South Korea now faces with the task of accomodating the newly emergent social cleavage on the issues of foreign policies. Even if party politics in South Korea has demonstrated gradual, if not highly satisfactory, developments, it sh...
Party politics in South Korea now faces with the task of accomodating the newly emergent social cleavage on the issues of foreign policies. Even if party politics in South Korea has demonstrated gradual, if not highly satisfactory, developments, it shows severe shortcomings in reflecting and moderating the new social cleavage on foreign policy issues. The rise of new generation, and Sunshine policy, and transition to information society have all combined forces to bring about foreign policy issue cleavage. This study has explored the failure of party politics in studying three key case studies - troop dispatch to Iraq, ratification of Korea-Chile FTA, and Tokdo Island issue between Japan and South Korea. It revealed various elements of the failure of party politics including weakened party discipline among parliamentary members, increased influence of NGOs, and conftrontation politics in divided government.